Arizona Chickens

[desertmarcy]

I have a broody sitting on eggs and the first one began to pip this afternoon. The broody is in a nest box (enclosed cat litter box) in a corner of the pullets' coop. Unfortunately my breeding pens/extra grow-out pens are not complete and won't be for a week or so. The other pullets have continued laying in that box with the broody the whole time, even though they have other nest boxes available. One day I found three birds in the box at the same time. Yikes...

I put a 2" x 4" wire cage around the nest box with the broody to keep the pullets out of the nest box while the chicks hatch. It's kind of small but there is enough room for the broody to get out and move around a little. Not as much as she would like. I put a bowl of feed in there for her and some water. I was figuring after the chicks hatch I could keep chick feed and water in the cage and the chicks could run in and out but the big girls can't get to it. I am hoping broody girl is a good chick momma and takes care of the babies after hatching. We will see.

My question is, what kind of roosting area should I set up for broody and chicks, since I can't give them their own private grow-out pen right now? They will have to share the coop/run and outdoors with the pullets. I assume the broody will roost on the ground with the chicks at night, but I never had a broody before so this is all new to me. I was thinking of removing the current nest box after chicks are hatched, and replacing it with a shallower open box with fresh, more chick-appropriate bedding. I can't put that in the cage with the chick food and water because the broody won't be able to go in and out, so it would have to be in another corner of the coop/run. I am open to suggestions.

A photo of your current set up may be useful. I'm having a little trouble visualizing...

 

[desertmarcy]

Yeah, I like giving away stuff, and I don't mean junk, either. I gave one landscaping guy a practically new $600 huge portable dishwasher with a butcher block counter top. I gave another one of my landscaping guys a nice built-in GE Profile dishwasher and microwave because a swapped out for stainless steel, even given away power tools.

Top this.....I gave the neighbor a few doors down accross the street a brand new $800 sofa from Sam Levitz plus two wicker-inlaid, glass-top end tables, a practically new over-range GE profile microwave. Since that day he hasn't spoken to me or given me a thank you because he's in some kind of religious cult and think that the neighborhood is all heathens. He won't even associate with his sister that owns a house four doors down, directly accross from me, or waive when I give him a beep driving down the street while he's jogging...looks at me like I'm a piece of crap. I guess I'm not good enough to be in his company, but he gladly accepted everything I gave him, considering that his couch was chewed up by his two maingy dogs and his flat screen TV sits on a milk crate. Oh, I think I even gave him some gorgeous lamps to sit on those end tables, shades and all, completely furnishing his living room. He got the hookup. All that was needed were a few pictures to hang on the wall, and he would have been complete. What's up with that?

I don't expect him to come up and lick my boots every time I pull in the driveway and get outta my truck or build a shrine in my honor in his front yard. I try to treat folks the way I would want to be treated. The more ignorance, rudeness, inconsideration that I see, the more I withdraw from people. I've met some nice folks on the Internet, though. Some I have talked to for almost 10 years before meeting them in person, and they were really nice.

Oops, this wasn't chicken related, but this was in response about the JOY OF GIVING. I've been blessed with an abundance of things, some may consider trash while others may consider treasure.

On a chicken note, I am enjoying that long thread about the Delaware Chickens. The thread is about 1,265 pages and I'm up to about page 750. Many questions about their heritage, Standard of Perfection, the genetics aspect of the breed, the differences between hatchery stock and what current breeders are doing to restore/keep this breed going. They will definitely be number 1 on my list, next to the Black Austrolorps. I can't remember from posts past, but is it Desertmarcey (sp) a bit north of Tucson, who has those breeds? Sorry, so many folks, so little time.

Sorry for the rant above, but I hate giving away good stuff to unappreciative folks, just makes my blood boil. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Bobby, I do not have black Australorps. I have a few Delawares but am not really working with them. I got some of Kathyinmo's F4's but found they still need a great deal of work to meet the SOP. I have my work cut out for me already with the other breeds I have. None of the F4 Delaware pullets I got have the correct coloration. Nice type on a couple. The males have too much black. I hope they lose some of it. I have one hatchery hen that is two years old that I may try crossing to one of the cockerels. She is too pale so maybe the overcolored male will compensate. No great expectations.

 

[flower]

Last year I crossed an Orloff rooster over true Ameraucana hens (a blue and a black). The offspring had the Orloff look and personality and 7 out of the 8 I kept laid blue-green eggs. More on the blue side than green. One laid tan eggs. Never could figure that out. Blue X Tan egg layers should all be green. They laid pretty well but not so much since this hot summer. I hope they start laying again now that it has cooled off some.

Blue egg gene is dominate but not all birds from a mixed match will inherit the blue egg gene. Therefor the egg had to be tan (no blue egg gene). What do your crosses look like with the feather gene mix of blue/black and mahogany form the Orloff ? I guess I need to visit your web page !

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by MagicChicken about broody

This past summer I had a similar setup except two broodies were sitting in a double nesting box inside a large crate. After the hatch both hens shared the chicks and sat together with them. I think that your present setup will work and you can adapt the space as they grow. Anyway that is what happened here.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
OK, forget my current setup. Will the broody be more likely to sleep with the chicks:

1. Directly on the ground wherever the heck she wants?
2. In a nice open nest box with fresh, chick-appropriate bedding (think cat litter box with no lid)?
3. On a roost with the chicks, if the roost is low enough for the chicks to get up on it? or
4. Back in the covered nest box she just spent several weeks in and is probably sick of by now (think cat litter box with lid)?

Yeah, I know, with my luck she'll probably hatch them and then ignore them. Crossing my fingers she actually wants to raise them. She seems to know what she's doing so far.

 

[Arizonachicken]

OK, forget my current setup.  Will the broody be more likely to sleep with the chicks:

1.  Directly on the ground wherever the heck she wants?
2.  In a nice open nest box with fresh, chick-appropriate bedding (think cat litter box with no lid)?
3.  On a roost with the chicks, if the roost is low enough for the chicks to get up on it? or
4.  Back in the covered nest box she just spent several weeks in and is probably sick of by now (think cat litter box with lid)?

Yeah, I know, with my luck she'll probably hatch them and then ignore them.  Crossing my fingers she actually wants to raise them.  She seems to know what she's doing so far.

I have had broodies raise their chicks in the coop with the other hens and rooster. Our set up is small, but I let them out everyday to roam about. Anyway, the mama slept directly on the floor of the coop with her babies (I use the deep litter method, so there is a thick layer of pine shavings) and no one bothered she or her babies. When it was time, mama would go up to roost and the babies that could fly would roost with her. The others would sleep on the lower roosts. They were accepted into the flock from day one by the other hens.

 

[Twinklin]

I do like that you did a comparison.. I have always wanted to, just don't want
to buy them... The white on yours proves the freshness..

I had bought a carton right before Ony started laying because I knew she was close but I also knew with only one chicken it would be a few days before she'd lay enough to make a meal. Hopefully I'll never have to buy them again.

 

[Phottoman]

Phottoman, I don't quite understand. Here, since the fairground is run by the county government, the county attorneys would be involved any matter going to court. Your beloved needs to call the county attorney's office if the fair employees aren't doing it. I don't think she will be liable for any $$.

Our Fair is NOT "run" by any government entity, we are not like "the Big City" type of Fair, we have a Fair Association with about 100 members, and from that we elect Committee Members (to run different departments of the Fair, livestock, small animals, art, photography, etc, etc). The Fair is itself rented (actually leased) property within the city, but is considered County Property. And although we are smack dab in the middle of a City, the City Police could not afford to be on-site this year (due to cutbacks) and the County Sheriff seldom makes an appearance. It really IS a mishmash of weirdness, but we manage to put on a pretty good Fair yearly, in spite of hardships.

Also, since this is a Small Claims court, no lawyer can represent either party, and very little legal guidance has been given BY the Fair Association Attorney.

Oh, and the amount being sued for ... the repair bill for damages done to the vehicle BY the towing company, well documented by the plaintiff.

I agree that there must be some means for the fair to mediate the problem for an employee. No one should be liable in the first place since that person was in fault for not obeying the rules.

None of the members are "employees." And yesterday was, as it turns out, the mediation part of this, hoping to settle without having to take the time of the Court. More about that later ....

Skip, I'm sorry to hear about the legal issues. Hopefully the court will see that that the guy was in the wrong and rule in favor of the County Fair Committee. You both will be in our thoughts today.

More about this later in this posting ... maybe ....

Seems like the Fair, not your beloved is the one who might be at risk. She is simply the one representing the Fair. She needs to make sure she takes complete documentation, and if anyone is involved whose testimony might be needed, she needs to have a notarized statement from each one (needs to be notarized to be admissible).

EDITED TO ADD: Get the county attorney involved as was recommended by pipemum. I con't see how your beloved is likely to be anything except a witness (and that assumes that she was aware of what was going on at the time of the incident).

The way the papers were typed, it names the County Fair Association (comma) and My Beloved BY NAME (she was the only one that came to the office when paged by the owner of the vehicle) and she gave her card so they could contact her in the future if there "were any problems."

Now, before anyone jumps on her giving the card, she is a former Homicide Detective with MANY YEARS experience in dealing with the public. She told the people that they were paged for well over a four hour period, and they were blocking several cars that were legally parked. None of us expected this to come this far. And before the tow company was called, she had several meetings with Board Members and it was the Chairman of the Board that decided to have the vehicle towed, all well documented.

The Chairman of the Board, the Manager of the Fairgrounds and My Beloved were all there, and I guess everything was going well, the other party even offered to reduce the damages to half of what was being asked for in the first place, until the Chairman opened his mouth and made some pretty stupid remarks, almost causing My Beloved to swallow her tongue and the Fair Manager to swallow his chin. He offered two years of Fair Association Membership and a place on the committee as Parking Commissioner, which was turned down, and then stormed out as Angry Old Men will do when they can't have their way. (Membership in the Fair Association is only $25 per year per family, Committee membership is an elected office, not an appointed office, especially by the Board, it is strictly within the committee's to open new offices for election, so he was out of order to even offer this). Then he went WAY overboard on a statement that I cannot repeat here due to legality, but we can only be thankful that statements made in this hearing cannot be used in Court, or so the Hearing Officer said yesterday. I wasn't there, the room was too small and I had "other things" to do.

It is going to go to Court next since nothing was finalized yesterday.

Sorry to rant, but I wanted to answer several that made statements.

In a meeting yesterday morning before going to the court building, I brought up the problem with My Beloved being the only person named in the suite, but I was told that the Fair Association has the money and if payment needs to made, the check WOULD be written to the Plaintiff, but as I said, He is an angry man, and I believe more will happen about this at the next election for Board Membership.

Please God, Protect us all from STUPID people.

You can not unring a bell, and you just can't 'fix' stupidity.

Skip

 

[Phottoman]

I also like the side by side comparison of the two eggs, and I have had to tell everyone that we give eggs too, the shells are SUPER strong, be careful how you open them.

Skip

 

[Phottoman]

Something I seemed to have forgotten to mention in the above ... the damages sought by the plaintiff is to cover cost of repair to the vehicle BY THE TOW company. The transmission of the vehicle was, as I understand it, totally screwed up and replacement was the $2500 being asked for. This is, as it was explained to me, a first step in actually going after the tow company for the damages they did.

I am totally in the dark about all this and know nothing more than what I have relayed here.

I was told that the damages are exceptionally well documented, so it seems the plaintiff is NOT trying to screw the Fair in their law suite, but they were told I guess, this is the way to go about recovering their losses.

Skip